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Great article James. I usually don't agree with your columns, but you are spot on in this instance. The police are NOT there to protect you from being the victim of a crime, but to investigate and arrest the perpetrator after a crime has already been committed.

I realize that not all people are comfortable owning and handling firearms, but those of us who are don't possess them looking for an instance to use them. I take common sense steps to protect myself and my home, but if it comes down to my life or a criminals, I'm ready to use my firearms to protect my bodily safety and that of others.

We need to look at a much bigger picture. People just walking down the street are getting attacked. Young woman in the regional news walking to work was attacked for no reason. Plenty of bystanders were around on a busy street. No one helped the woman that suffered broken bones.

Like Carl Douglas I am just an old man with a walking cane. That is all I will need.

Clark is right. I moved out of Milwaukee when Police dispatchers picked up the habit of refusing to dispatch police to all night parties, open air drug dealing and street fights. Delayed response would be a 1,000% improvement from what we experienced.

More than once I was told "tonight isn't a good night" or "we're just too busy tonight" or "you're in a good neighborhood" as I begged for someone to come out and shut down all night parties, fights, etc. that kept my wife, children and me up all night. After a while the parties expanded to include people harassing my wife when I was away and banging on our house. Still, no reply. No guns, no response.

The whole thing is a joke. MPD's motto should be "to serve at our leisure, unless tonight's a bad night."

I really don't understand the backlash on this one. He is advising people not only to arm themselves but to be responsible about it - do it legally and learn how to use the weapon. To be honest, it sounds very similar to what we were told in C&C class. How do you find fault with that? As a lifetime liberal, I just don't see this as a partisan issue. No matter how many officers or deputies we have, they cannot be everywhere. We need to be ready. This is just common sense, like having insurance.

There will be a lot more Bo Morrisons and Trayvon Martins if the sheriff has his way. Vigilante justice is not the answer to poor police service (or the poor paramedic service that you complain about, for that matter).

No the Bo Morrison who was murdered for hiding in the wrong house. The Bo Morrison who was shot because the Homeowner could, not because he was truly a threat. The Bo Morrison who had the misfortune of encountering someone who couldn't wait to shoot. THAT Bo Morrison

Bo Morrison was shot because the homeowner chose to protect himself and his family from an unknown intruder. The lesson is to not about guns, it's about not breaking into other people's homes. We all have the right to protect our home and self, how we do it is our choice and right. I realiize Bo Morrison had alot of friends and family that cared for him, but the fact is he broke into a home (going in even if you just open an unlocked door is breaking in) and was hiding from the cops, he made a bad choice. Future criminals should then realize that when you break into a home, you are risking your life....regardless of your intentions, because there is no way a homeowner could know what your intention is in the short time they realize there is an intruder.

I used to not really believe in guns until one day I came home at 2 am and as I walked through my front door an uninvited guest was walking through my backdoor into my kitchen. Fortunately I'm not a little guy and the house was dark so maybe I looked even more menacing and the coward ran but that could have gotten ugly real fast. Owning and knowing how to use a fire arm is not a bad idea. Also knowing how to properly store it when not in use is also key.

Putting the focus on whether or not having a gun for self-defense is a good idea is missing the point of Sheriff Clarke's ad, which is actually a clever and pointed political statement. He makes it crystal clear in the very first sentence of the radio spot: "With officers laid off and furloughed, simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option." Regardless of whether it's justifiable, the simple truth is that the sheriff's budget has been cut left and right in recent years. It's perhaps not entirely coincidental that recently the Mayor and the County Executive have offered for the MPD to take up the slack. Clarke's concern is not really with individual readiness; he's actually just shaking the tree to point up his concern with how the lack of funding of his department has adversely affected public safety.

He says "officers" not "deputies". To me, he is referring to cuts at MPD. Unless you are in an accident on the freeway or a fight breaks out in a park, you won't ever have 911 calls routed to a Sheriff's Deputy. He is making a statement on the current status of public safety and both now and in the past, it is common sense that you need to be as prepared as you can to protect yourself, your family and your home against criminals.

How can he have it both ways? He plainly states "We're partners now". What's next? Is he going to suggest deputizing citizens? If he is making a generalized political statement about safety in Milwaukee county as a politician, it should not be through a PSA which gives it added credibility. He has zero to do with violent crimes in the places he is discussing.